I'll Be Here When You Wake Up
by mmaarriaa
Summary: And then he saw him. Coming out of the orange circle. Peter seemed so scared and so, so young. He looked as if he was looking for someone. When Peter finally saw him, struggling to stay up, looking older than ever, and worryingly thin, he didn't seem to notice. A spark of recognition passed through his eyes and Peter ran towards Tony.


Tony looked terrible. In every sense of the word. He had just arrived to earth and was extremely thin and mentally unstable. He had lost the kid…He couldn't even think about anything else. Every time he closed his eyes he saw Peter's large and terrified ones begging him for help…to begging him to protect him…and he failed, as always.

He was now sitting in the meeting room with the rest of the survivors, listening to cap's nonsense about bringing everybody back. Why couldn't he understand that they had lost? Tony had warned him, all those years ago, but Rogers just wouldn't listen. And because of that half of human kind was gone, transformed into a pile of ashes, and the survivors were now condemned to keep living without half of their loved ones.

He could hear the rest of the avengers talking about Thanos and he asked "Where is he now?"

Rogers was quick to answer "We don't know"

Tony could feel his anger popping trough. They _didn't know. _Steve then started to ask him stupid questions. Why did cap care about what Thanos had told him? They had lost… he had lost him. He avoided Steve's questions; he couldn't think straight. Peter's eyes… his scared face.. he was just a kid… and he didn't want to go.

"Tony I'm gonna need you to focus"

Tony doesn't exactly remember what happened afterwards, but next thing he knew he was telling Steve everything he had been keeping inside for so long.

"_Liar_"

Steve had lied to Tony. And Tony had believed him. And because of that half of humanity was gone. Peter was gone. Peter was gone. Because of that lie. Peter… the future of the avengers, Tony's protégé. He couldn't believe he was never going to hear Peter laugh…his tiring rambling… his selflessness.

He tore the reactor off his chest. His heart was already gone anyways. Turned to dust on Titan.

"Here, take this. You find him and you put that on. You hide."

A huge explosion followed. And Dr Strange's weirs circles appeared, the Peter Quill coming out of it.

"What's up losers?"

"It's impossible" mumbled Steve.

Tony couldn't keep his eyes off the circle. It couldn't be. He couldn't let himself hope… because the disappointment would destroy him. His brain didn't seem to hear him though.

_It can't be… but please… let him come back…_

Tony would give anything, _anything_ to see the kid again. He could feel his weak body struggling to keep standing up but he needed to see.

Slowly, all the disappeared came back through Strange's weird portal and Tony could hear people's cries and laughs. He saw from the corner of his eye Steve and Bucky hugging. Tony was starting to feel dizzy… but he couldn't let go, not until he was sure the kid was alive and alright.

And then he saw him. Coming out of the orange circle. Peter seemed so scared and so, so young. He looked as if he was looking for someone. When Peter finally saw him, struggling to stay up, looking older than ever, and worryingly thin… he didn't seem to notice. A spark of recognition passed through his eyes and Peter ran towards Tony.

"Mr Stark! You will not believe what is going on! Do you remember when we were in space? And I got all dusty? Well l must have passed out 'cause I woke up and you were gone… but Dr Strange was there right?...'

Tony just stared at him; his eyes so filled with tears he could barely see.

"and he was like "it's been 23 days come on they need us!" and then he started doing the yellow sparkly thing he does all the time…"

Tony couldn't take it anymore and hugged Peter close, as hard as he could. His kid was safe. He was right there. Right there. He rested his cheek against Peter's hair and took a deep breath.

"Oh my god Peter… Peter…you - you're here" he stuttered as Peter closed his arms against his waist. Peter felt Tony's tears in his hair and heard him start to sob.

"Yeah Mr Stark, I'm alright, it's fine" Peter reassured. That only made Tony sob harder and hold him even tighter against his chest. With that movement Peter could feel his mentor's ribs and frowning he tried to break the embrace but Tony had a firm grip on him so all he could do was separate himself a little, feeing Tony's grip on both of his arms.

Just as he_ really_ looked at his father-figure, he noticed how bad he looked. He seemed to have aged 20 years, grey hair starting to appear. He was extremely thin, he had lost at least thirty pounds, his cheekbone standing out of his face, he was now only skin and bones. He was also slightly shaking and breathing heavily, as if he had ran a marathon. But what would haunt Peter for the rest of his life was the look in his mentor's eyes. He seemed haunted, as a man who had seen too much, and who had lost everything. His eyes where wide open and unfocused, though staring right at Peter, as if nothing else mattered.

"Mr Stark what happened? Are you alright? I mean you are obviously not… ok that was rude…" he said starting to blush "but you know what I mean! You look as if you'd gone to hell and back and…" he was interrupted by another hug, and heard Mr Stark laughing and sobbing at the same time. He didn't even know that was possible.

"Peter… oh god Peter…" Tony didn't seem to be able to say anything else and as he hugged his boy, he started to shake violently and collapsed to the ground, unable to support his weight. Fortunately, Peter was very strong and was able to catch him and stop him from hurting himself.

"Mr Stark!"

Peter lowered both of them to the ground, supporting all of Tony's weight, whose muscles didn't seem to function at all. He sat down on the floor, positioning peter on his lap, his mentor's head on his shoulder. He grabbed one of Tony's calloused hands and held it tight. He could feel all the bones.

Tony then looked at Peter, straight in the eyes, and all Peter could see was love pouring out of them. He rose the hand Peter was not holding and shaking, placed it on Peter's cheek. His mentee leaned to the touch. Tony's eyes began to close, he was so tired… but what if when he woke up he found out all of this was a dream? He wouldn't survive. He knew.

"Peter…" he said, sounding as a scared child, who didn't want to fall asleep. He was looking at Peter as if he wanted to memorize every single pour of his face.

Peter just smiled and kissed his mentor's head

"It's ok, I'll be here when you wake up."


End file.
